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Foreign Language Education in Multilingual Classrooms
Edited by Andreas Bonnet and Peter Siemund
[Hamburg Studies on Linguistic Diversity 7] 2018
► pp. 281–304

Affordances of multilingual learning situations – Possibilities and constraints for foreign language classrooms

| Goethe-University Frankfurt
| Goethe-University Frankfurt, Germany

Against the background of technological development and linguistic diversity in our society, a multilingual software application for classroom usage, including digital picture-books in different languages, has been developed in the context of an EU-funded project called MuViT. This product has been adapted for a research study called LIKE (Elsner, Buendgens-Kosten & Hardy 2014) which focuses on the question how mono- and multilingual learners of English at primary and early secondary school level make use of different languages (L1, L2, L3) while working with a computer-based story in pairs. So far 50 dyads have been tested and observed during their work with the stories. In this paper, the relevant design decisions regarding the use of the multilingual digital storybooks and its implementation in a quasi-experimental setting will be discussed, focusing on the affordances they provide from the perspective of the researchers. In a second step, the focus will move to how pupils make use of the multilingual affordances offered by the learning environment (software and peer to peer situation). Case analyses drawn from the sample will be presented with regard to pupils’ receptive code-switching behavior. On the basis of a sequential qualitative analysis, we will describe in which way the use of different languages may contribute to or rather interfere with processes of foreign language learning. This analysis will point out the potential and limits of multilingual language learning environments (learning material and multilingual pair-/group work) with regard to foreign language learning and allow for methodological implications for the use of multilingual learning material and pair-/group work arrangements.

Keywords: language acquisition, language awareness, multilingualism, multilingual picture books, computer-assisted language learning
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Project LIKE
    • 2.1Research setting and design
    • 2.2Measures and sample
    • 2.3Research focus of LIKE – Research focus of this paper
      • 2.3.1Multilingual affordances of the LIKE research setting – The researchers´ perspective
      • 2.3.2Affordances of the multilingual software
      • 2.3.3Affordances of the multilingual setting
  • 3.Case analysis
    • 3.1Case 1: Viscacha Rat (non-comprehension and microswitches)
      • 3.1.1Scene 1: Breakfast table
      • 3.1.2Scene 2: via radio
    • 3.2Case 2: Pericote (different languages, different uses)
      • 3.2.1Scene 3: Thunderstorm
      • 3.2.2Scene 4: “Ah”
    • 3.3Case 3: Pectinator (avoiding the challenge)
      • 3.3.1Scene 5: “Was sollen wir jetzt tun?“
  • 4.Discussion
  • Appendix
    • Transcription signs
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 24 October 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hsld.7.13bue
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